Political Career
He was active in local and regional politics, and in 1918 became a Member of the Second Chamber of the Riksdag, representing the Liberal Party, but he was not re-elected in 1921. He switched to the Agrarian Party Bondeförbundet (the "Farmers' League") and was elected a Member of the Second Chamber in 1929, where he served until 1949. He was chairman of the party from 1934 to 1949.
After the Social Democratic cabinet of Per Albin Hansson was overthrown by a parliamentary majority in the spring 1936, Pehrsson got the mandate of king Gustaf V to form a non-socialist coalition government. This turned out to be impossible and Pehrsson briefly headed a one-party cabinet as prime minister from June 19 to 28 September 1936. Since this cabinet was only in office during the summer it was called "The Holiday Government". He appointed himself minister of agriculture; after the elections to the Second Chamber in September he resigned as prime minister but remained as minister of agriculture in the new Hansson cabinet, which was a coalition of Social Democrats and the Bondeförbundet. He continued in the same cabinet position in the national coalition cabinet which was formed under Hansson's prime ministership at the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and sat until the end of the war in 1945.
Read more about this topic: Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp
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